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Faculty of Humanities

Making a Difference Awards 2024: Celebrating our winners and highly commended entries

17 May 2024

On Thursday, 9 May, the University hosted the 10th annual Making a Difference Awards to celebrate the inspiring social responsibility achievements of our staff, students, alumni, and external partners.

The University and Faculty social responsibility activity spans everything from research to teaching, working with external partners, and University operations.

The Awards highlight the extensive range of social responsibility initiatives of our University community and include categories such as benefit to society through research, widening participation, environmental sustainability, equality, diversity, and inclusion. 

Over 120 entries were submitted this year, with judges recognising 17 winners and 22 highly commended entries. Winners and highly commended nominees from the Faculty of Humanities included a project on PGCE Secondary Green Conference, public engagement initiatives focused on building partnerships with academic and non-academic partners to develop knowledge of anti-poverty strategies in Manchester, and a project building on 15 years of research on countering climate anxiety with hope, confidence and inspiration.

In addition to the Making a Difference Awards, our Chancellor, Nazir Afzal OBE, presented two University Medals for Social Responsibility: staff and alumni. The recipients were the One Bin To Rule Them All team for enabling a sustainable circular plastics economy and alumna Rosie Baker for Planet Food York – a food-waste-reduction social enterprise.

During the event, President and Vice-Chancellor Nancy Rothwell received a Making a Difference Award for social responsibility leadership, recognising her outstanding contribution to the social responsibility agenda.

A posthumous award was also presented to an exceptional School of Social Sciences alumna, Laura Nuttall, who sadly passed away shortly after graduating in 2023. Laura made an exceptional impact on the world with her awareness-raising and fundraising campaigns for brain tumour research, and her family was in attendance to receive the award.

Dr Julian Skyrme, Director of Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement, said: “The Making a Difference Awards allow us to celebrate some of the best work that our staff, students, alumni, and partners do each year to enhance the well-being of society and the environment.”

Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility, concluded: “It was a wonderful experience to be involved in an event that recognises the inspiring work that our staff, students, alumni and partners are involved in. With celebrating 200 years of making a difference, the Awards have again shown how universities' unique abilities and resources can create positive change in wider society through research, innovation, and most importantly, our people.”

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